:gbg: Flame: User-hostile ethic of the Linux community

To: zzdev@xxxxxxxxxx, rms@xxxxxxx

Subject: :gbg: Flame: User-hostile ethic of the Linux community

From: Ted Nelson <ted@xxxxxxxxxx>

Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 03:05:11 +0900

Cc: ted@xxxxxxxxxx

(These are notes which will be included in my forthcoming book,
*Geeks Bearing Gifts*.)
I do not understand the curious user-hostile ethic of the Linux
community in making stuff unreadable to users of commercial
software, insisting on
? PostScript files
? TeX-format documents
? Mozilla-compliant Web pages
I don't understand this ethic. While it may be intended consciously
to try to draw outsiders across the line into your world, its main
consequence is to deny access to those outside the programming
community. Showing an attitude like that of the guys who refer
to non-programmers as "(l)users".
There are millions of people who do not have time to become
programmers, or to research and install the arcane software
required to to view and use these contents on Windows or the Mac.
And the effort and time required to learn Linux is far beyond
most people who have to earn a living in some other area.
I have observed that the more coherent the social group, the more
hostility to outsiders. This seems to be an example.
Ted
_________________________________________
Theodor Holm Nelson
Project Professor, Keio University SFC Campus, Fujisawa, Japan
Visiting Professor, University of Southampton, England
? e-mail: ted@xxxxxxxxxx ? world-wide fax 1/415/332-0136
? http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/ ? http://www.xanadu.net
? Coordinates in USA Tel. 415/ 331-4422
Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965
_________________________________________